Drosophila

Ways to discover biological immortality and slowing down ageing process Ageing is simply the matter of our bodies physically getting old and it has environmental and genetic causes. As we get older we tend to develop and maintain some habits which can affect our health either positively or negatively and this represents the accumulation of changes in a person over time. Biological immortality is a term used by biologists to distinguish cells that are not subject to the Hayflick limit. There are…

technologies to the private sector, which means that it would not be owned by the government, and last but not least, include the legal, social and ethical issues that may come up during this project. Organisms such as Escherichia coli, the fruit fly (Drosophila), and mouse were used for this project’s research. 2. A complete set of DNA and genes in…

The Western Honey Bee and its twenty sub species have been extensively spread across the planet due to economic benefits relating with pollination and honey production. Honey bees live in colonies and split the division of labor among individuals. There are three castes of Western Honey Bees: Workers, Drones, and Queens (Krell 1996). Worker bees are non-reproductive females that make up the largest group in the colony. They specialize in the collection of pollen/nectar and feeding the young.…

We started off Wednesday, knowing we would be covering a topic that was completely new to pretty much everyone attending. We were covering transposable elements. These were first discovered by Barbara McClintock in corn kernels. She noticed that the corn kernels were either colored, or plain- but once in a while they were spotted. Most scientists at the time assumed that the chromosome for color had been repressed or had broken off. However, Dr. McClintock felt that if the chromosome had been…

Restriction enzymes are used to manipulate DNA sequences to create recombinant DNA by first cutting up the foreign DNA in order to protect the bacteria cell against invading DNA from other organisms. The enzyme is very specific when it comes to identifying a specific DNA sequence. When the enzyme identifies the specific DNA sequence it cuts both DNA strands at specific points at the restriction site. Lastly, the DNA ligase joins the DNA from two different sources and produces a recombinant DNA…

There are several species on the earth and each species has its unique characteristics. Even within a species, there exists noticeable variation. Variety is the essence of nature. Confining this article to humans, it can be seen that all human beings are similar to a great extent but there are also different from each other to a significant extent. The variation among individuals is due the genetic make up. With an exception of monozygotic twins, no two individuals in the world are identical.…

Prenatal exposure to alcohol has a profound effect on development and health. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is an umbrella term referring to the various effects and conditions caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol. Lasting effects may include learning and growth deficits, central nervous system dysfunction, behavioral dysregulation, and sensory integration dysfunction. Early developmental trauma, such as prenatal alcohol exposure, has a persistent effect on a child’s development and can lead to…

Species And Why it Matters If They Become Extinct According to the famous definition by Ernst Mayr, a species is said to be “a group of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups (Ridley)”. This quotation defines the biological species concept that is a largely accepted definition of a species. The human population is increasingly becoming a reckless civilization with no regard for the actions we follow therefore the concept of a species becoming…

From the dawn of the dinosaur to modern day times, animals have been going extinct since their conception on Earth billions of years ago. With the ever overwhelming threat of climate change, many things in nature are at risk for becoming nonexistent. The phrase climate change possess a number of factors that contribute to environmental changes. “For climate change, relevant variables include temperature, precipitation and related variables, as well as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, which…

Neurodegenerative disease is an all-encompassing term for an array of conditions which principally affect the neurons of the human brain. These make up the nervous system, which also incorporates the spinal cord and, under normal circumstances, do not replace themselves or reproduce. Therefore, when they are damaged or die off, they are unable to be replaced. Neurodegenerative diseases are debilitating conditions that result in progressive degeneration and/or the death of nerve cells. This…